The politics of moralizing / edited by Jane Bennett and Michael J. Shapiro.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Bennett, Jane, 1957-

Shapiro, Michael J.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Social ethics.

Ethics, Modern.

Dogmatism.

Political anthropology.

Physical Description:

vi, 248 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

New York : Routledge, 2002.

Summary:

The Politics of Moralizing issues a warning about the risks of speaking, writing, and thinking in a manner too confident about one's own moral judgments. It discerns this tendency within what has become a popular cultural narrative told by both the left and the right -- the story of the West's moral decline, degeneration, or confusion. For the authors in this volume, such moralizing gives license to self-aggrandizement and punitiveness, and its tendency to idealize a simpler past obscures the need to respond creatively, through a democratic politics, to changing social conditions. Beyond declaiming the perils of moralizing, each essay experiments with strategies for warding off its own moralistic tendencies while still affirming a positive political vision and still arguing on its behalf. The volume is organized as a series of normative alternatives to moralistic treatments of various topics in contemporary culture, including patriotism, family values, environmental protection, women's rights, democratization, and civility.

Contents:

Chapter 1 The Moraline Drift / Jane Bennett 11

Chapter 2 Generating a Virtuous Circle: Democratic Identity, Moralism, and the Languages of Political Responsibility / Alan Keenan 27

Chapter 3 Political Not Patriotic: Democracy, Civic Space, and the American Memorial/Monument Complex / Steven Johnston 63

Chapter 4 Autobiography and Cultivating the Arts of the Female Self / Ann Curthoys 93

Chapter 5 The Tragedy of the Ethical Commons: Demoralizing Environmentalism / William Chaloupka 113

Chapter 6 Out for a Walk / Helen Liggett 141

Chapter 7 Just the Facts, Please: Why Civil Society Does Not Need Moral Truths / Jill Locke 183

Chapter 8 The Challenge of Polytheism: Moses, Spinoza, and Freud / John Docker 201

Chapter 9 Affirming the Political: Tragic Affirmations versus Gothic Displacements / Michael J. Shapiro 223.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

041593477X

0415934788

OCLC:

49531009